Countdown
by Taryn Streambattle
Summary: Fifteen seconds left to live. I advise you use the time wisely. No? How about reminiscing, then?


**Rating:** **K **

**Beta:** None. Unless you count the awesome review left by WhyMustIWrite. Now go read her stories. Or the Strawhats will be mad.

**Summary: **Fifteen seconds left alive. I advise you use the time wisely. No? How about reminiscing, then?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, or Orochimaru's last words. The Mizuki-Iruka-Anko team theory came from a story I read by Sonic Rose, _Iruka's Child_. Which needs updating.

However, I own Mizuki, since he has dropped off the face of the earth after chapter one. Oh, wait... the Mizuki Strikes Back Arc. Darn filler. :( I hate it all. Except for One Piece filler, which is actually IN CHARACTER and does not butcher my favorites like Naruto filler does.

**Music Box:** One Day, by THE ROOTLESS. **http :/www .youtube .com /watch ?v =UgiKkHj -TEc** I think I'm addicted to this song. ONE PIECE FTW!

**Edit-** Edited May 30th, 2011 due to Why-sensei's review. I cut somethings that bothered me and added a couple lines. Yay for Con crit!

_**Countdown**_

15...

"Everything will be mine!" I cry as the red closes around me.

_And yet, you've already lost what matters most,_ my suppressed conscious whispers bitterly. _You gave it all up for this. You gave _them_ up for this._

_I have nothing to counter that with, no way to counter the truth I had denied all these years. All the glorious power I had reached for had slipped out of my grasp like water. The only people I had ever really cared about, I had abandoned. All I had left was memories...  
><em>

14...

_Mizuki's voice was like warm steel. Cool and placid save in moments of heated anger, full of quiet strength and wisdom. He always supported and defended his comrades, as the oldest brother should do. _

13...

_I remember her eyes. They were so bright, so full of life. It pumped light into my darkness. And while it hurt, there was a queerly pleasant feeling about it. Anko...  
><em>

12...

_And then there was Iruka's smile. He was a strange blend of the other two with his own unique flair. Despite his pain, he was still innocent and pure. He didn't belong, and yet he made them whole.  
><em>

11...

_Mizuki hated rain. It rusted his weapons and made them slippery, not to mention that it gave Iruka an advantage on sparring days. But he liked earth, and what he could make from earth._

10...

_Sometimes I think she liked dango only because it was a reason to cajole me into spending time with her. Anko doesn't like being alone. I'm glad I didn't tell her about the adoption papers in committee. After my experiments were discovered, there is no way that the old geezer would ever let it happen. _

_I never noticed until now... Otogakure is so quiet..._

9...

_There are few shinobi who can survive a fight against a Kiri nin on his home turf, even without flinging themselves in front of missiles meant for a comrade. But then, rules have never been able to contain Iruka. Sometimes I think he made the rules up as he went along.  
><em>

8...

_Ja-ken-po. That was the theory abut my team. Clever prankster beats loud, brash girl with multi-ranged snakes, who defeats a long range weaponsmaster, who in turn wins over the short-range explosives expert. Mizuki, the logical one of the team, pointed out that this made no sense. "Usually in sparring, nobody wins unless two of us team up against the third member or Hayate joins in and we all gang up on him."_

"_...Is this the reason you usually challenge Anko to target practice? To prove to yourself that this theory is nonsense? You know she can't refuse a challenge."_

"_Hey, why do you think Iruka's been working like nuts on water jutsu ever since I beat him in that one on one spar? He throws water jutsu at me in the middle of target practice for heaven's sake! As if Iruka with explosives and paint wasn't bad enough!"_

7...

_She did not like the boys' assessment of her new hair style. Being Anko, she tested the new jutsu I had taught her. However, she forgot that Senei'jashu summoned poisonous snakes and they were hospitalized for two days._

_In their defense, it did look like wet seaweed. _

6...

_Angry jōnin newly decorated with splashes of paint and egg dashed into my house in pursuit of their tormentor, only to sputter helplessly as I lectured them for scaring my genin. It might have worked if the culprit hadn't decided to pull faces at them, having escaped to the stairwell. Temporarily._

_I wonder if he's perfected the delayed release..._

5...

_The white-haired boy emptied his vast arsenal into a wooden target in less than thirty seconds, the tree trunk it hung on shattering under the intense force of the multiple blows. Every single missile was embedded into the heart of the now fragmented target. He looked at me for approval. _

_I smiled._

4...

_Anko writhed in silent agony as the seal ate away at her mind, the pain so sharp that she could not even bring a scream past her throat as the enzymes tore her cells apart to reconstruct her DNA. _Why did I do that? _I wondered as he looked back at my younger self, _What folly led me to risk not one but two of my precious students simply to test my juinjutsu? Any one of my test subjects would have worked...

_It was because of this seal I grafted into her skin that she struck her comrade through the heart. _

3...

_One of Kabuto's monthly reports from Konoha had news about Mizuki's defection, defeat, and subsequent flight to places unknown in a footnote on page 9. Years of built up hatred and resentment for the death of his sister finally snapped his restraint and his ill-advised attempt to kill the Kyuubi child failed. I tried to ignore the dirty feeling in my belly. It was the Cursed Seal of Earth that had started corrupting the steelsmith's mind. No doubt that Mizuki's intent was pure- ever since the death of his sister, losing more people to the kyuubi had haunted him like a poltergeist- but his judgment faltered drastically._

2...

_I don't know why Iruka gave up his dream. I only knew that he chose to remain a chūnin and take up __teaching in the academy. I wonder if it's because Iruka wants to succeed where I failed and become a guiding light to his students. _

1...

_If I could do it again..._

_Mizuki... Iruka... Anko..._

_I'm-_

0

Fifteen seconds left alive. I advise you use the time wisely. No? How about reminiscing, then?


End file.
